Over My Head
by Athena13
Summary: Scrubs What if Robin said yes to Patrick's offer of casual sex and no commitment?
1. Chapter 1

Over My Head  
Athena13  
Summary: What if Robin said yes to Patrick's offer of casual sex and no commitment?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  
Everyone knows I'm in  
Over my head  
Over my head  
With eight seconds left in overtime  
She's on your mind  
She's on your mind  
"Over My Head" by The Fray  
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Fine." Robin stood with her hands on her hips looking at Patrick who was sitting on the arm of the couch in the hospital waiting area. "Tonight."

Patrick, who had been prepared to argue his point, snapped his mouth closed. "Tonight?" he repeated in a strangled voice.

Robin tilted her head and smirked at him. The word "coward" echoed in the silence between them. She had once accused him of being afraid of emotional intimacy and he had gone and proven her right only minutes later. The dare was silent this time, but no less effective in getting Patrick Drake's dander up.

"You sure you're not going to turn away in a huff and stomp away?" Patrick put his hands on Robin's hips and slid his thumbs underneath the salmon colored sweater she was wearing to touch the skin on her waist.

"You sure there's not going to be any convenient knock on the door? Actually, I do have one condition," Robin said.

"I knew it!" Patrick shook his head and looked at her smugly.

"While we're sleeping with each other we don't have sex with anyone else."

"What's the point of 'casual' then, Robin?" He rolled his eyes and tilted his head back and looked at her through hooded eyes.

"Take it or leave it."

"I can agree to that." Patrick shrugged and licked his bottom lip.

"But do you agree?" Robin asked pointedly. This was one of her non-negotiables, both because of the risk of transmitting HIV and because she wouldn't be another number on his bedpost. At least not while she was lying underneath it.

Patrick chuckled at how precise she was being. "Yes, I agree. No sex with anyone else while we're still flinging, but either one of us gets to decide when this is over."

"And they tell the other person first." Robin pointed a finger in his face, knowing he was thinking that it would be him who would end it. "No sleeping with someone else and then conveniently letting the other person know. And we remain professional at work both during and after."

"Are we done negotiating?" Patrick grinned and bit his bottom lip. "Because, I have to say this is the most formal casual rel….fling I've ever had already."

"I'm done. Do you have any conditions?"

"Yeah. Practice smiling, I intend for both of us to have a good time." Patrick grinned and stood up. "What time should I pick you up?"

"This is not a date, Patrick. I'll come to your room tonight, eight o'clock?" She looked at her watch and then back up at him.

"Sure." Patrick frowned.

"See you then." Robin turned and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

"This is a bad idea, little sister." The dire warning in Brenda's transmitted clearly over the VOIP line.

"I thought you of all people would be thrilled that I'm doing this!" Robin stood in front of her clothes closet frowning, her cordless phone cradled between ear and shoulder. The arguments she'd had recently with her father and Patrick, combined with the fantasies she and the girls had woven last night had led her to the conclusion that she needed to shake things up a bit in her life. She had been so excited to tell Brenda about her decision to have a casual, sexual fling with Patrick and had been sure Brenda would cheer her on. "You and everyone are always telling me I need to cut loose and have some fun!"

"While I have no doubt the sex would be fun." Brenda paused to sigh. "You are not a casual girl. You're going to get attached and you're going to get hurt."

"Brenda I am the most cautious, logical person you know. I've given this a lot of thought."

"I have no doubt about that, which just proves my point. Not casual."

"Listen." Robin grabbed a deep purple shirt with a wrapped, v-neckline. "Patrick Drake is not the kind of man I could fall in love with." When Patrick had definitively refused to consider embarking on a real relationship, Robin had decided that this was a good thing because it would never have worked in the long run anyway. They both would have been pretending to themselves and each other just to get to the sex. She just decided to go along and do away with the pretense.

"You have feelings for him already, Robin. Don't lie to yourself. I know I've told you to loosen up, but not with someone destined to hurt you."

Robin sat down on the bed. "Patrick and I are colleagues and in some weird universe we might even be called friends, so while I've come to see that underneath the posturing there is a worthwhile human being, I know that he is also everything he appears to be on the surface - a glib, arrogant, emotionally unavailable man whore. Even if I made the mistake of falling for him, he would stop it before it got too risky." As far as Robin was concerned it was a win-win.

"And he's really hot." Brenda sighed.

"Yeah, he's really hot." Robin grinned widely.

"I can tell there's nothing I can say to change your mind, just be careful. And if you find yourself falling for the jerk, call me and I'll talk you out of it. Even if I have to come there and kidnap you for your own good."

"I know what I'm doing. Thanks, Bren. I love you."

"As long as I'm the one you're saying it to and not him! I love you too, little sister."

Robin clicked off the phone and tossed it on her bed and shook her head. She was twenty-eight years old, had had two major relationships in her life and was a doctor. She was sure she could handle casual sex with Patrick Drake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

"You're right on time." Patrick, trademark smirk in place, opened the door to let Robin into his hotel room.

Robin dropped her purse on the chair nearest the door and looked around. "I'm impressed." Patrick had filled the hotel room with candles, soft jazz and a lovely arrangement of flowers that looked, Robin walked closer, exactly like the ones he had brought her the night she was supposed to have cooked for him. "Interesting choice." She turned and looked at him.

He walked over to stand in her space and looked down at her. "I thought the flowers deserved a second chance." He licked his bottom lip and she could see the lust mingled with amusement in his dark eyes.

"Well." Robin smoothed her palms over the thighs of her black slacks and looked at the bed and then back at Patrick. She hadn't considered exactly how they would get things rolling. For that she was just going to have to rely on Patrick's experience.

"You look beautiful." Patrick reached out and caressed his fingertips down the velvet of her shirt from below her breast to her waist. The touch made Robin catch her breath.

"Thank you. You look pretty hot yourself." She tilted her head and smiled at him. He was wearing one of her favorite outfits, a black turtleneck and black pants. Now that she had given herself permission to do so, she allowed her eyes to take in every scrumptious inch of him. He was, she admitted, a completely delectable man. Physically, she amended as she looked into his self-satisfied expression.

"Glass of wine?" Patrick asked huskily.

"Yes." She watched him walk over to the bar and again enjoyed the view as he poured two glasses of red wine from the bottle he had already opened to breathe. Nice ass. She chuckled to herself at her prurient thoughts and sat down on the couch.

"Something funny, Sunshine?" He said as he handed her a glass and sat down facing her on the couch.

"Should you really be drinking with only forty-percent of a liver?" She swirled and sniffed the wine. Impressed, but not surprised by his good taste. She wouldn't have expected less from someone well-practiced in the art of seduction.

"I can handle myself. How about a toast? To mutual pleasure."

"To mutual pleasure." They clinked glasses.

>>>>>>

"To think you denied yourself all that pleasure this long." Patrick smiled a smug smile and feathered his fingers up and down Robin's naked back. She was lying face down on the pillows next to him trying to catch her breath.

"You would say that," Robin said dryly, not bothering to disabuse him of his notion that she had wanted him from the get go. The truth was that his good looks and charm had been considerably dimmed for her by the horndog exterior. It was seeing the man underneath that had stirred her attraction. But right now she was glad for the exterior because those qualities were going to be her shield.

"Come on you know…"

"Patrick, you already got me in your bed and I'll be here for the foreseeable future. Don't ruin it by saying something stupid." Robin rolled onto her side and looked at him.

Wisely taking her counsel, Patrick rolled over to set his alarm clock. "What time do you need to get up?" he asked.

"Right now." Robin rolled out of the bed and bent over to pick up the clothing they had strewn about in their haste to get from the couch to the bed. She idly noticed that she hadn't even gotten to drink half her glass of the great Italian wine. She made a mental note to ask Brenda if she knew the wine estate.

"You're leaving?" Alarm clock forgotten, Patrick sat up in bed, not bothering to cover his nudity as he gaped at her.

"We're done, right?" Robin winced as she sat down on the bed and began putting on her black boots. She hadn't meant to be so crude. Well, he was hardly likely to have his feelings hurt, she surmised. He had wanted casual sex and now he'd had it.

"Well, that depends." Patrick crawled over and pressed his lips to her neck.

Robin sighed and leaned into his seduction, but when his hands started to creep over her shoulders down to her breasts she stood up. "It was great. See you at work tomorrow." She bent down and pressed a kiss to his forehead and walked out the door leaving him scowling behind her.

She held her composure until she got into the elevator and then she collapsed back against the wall and blew out the breath she had been holding. She pressed a shaky hand to her stomach. "It's just chemicals," she reminded herself. Citing off in her head the neurotransmitters that were released by sex that caused a woman to form a false bond with any man she had sex with. She then calculated the time it would take for them to work their way out of her system. If she was lucky it would be before she saw Patrick at work the next day.

But while she was feeling the aftereffects she could only be relieved that she had made rules for herself. She knew she would need them in order to get through this fling with Patrick unscathed. They were as follows:

1. She would never spend the entire night  
2. They would only get together for sex in his hotel room  
3. Avoid any date-like scenarios best as possible  
4. They could not be together more than three nights a week (negotiable)  
5. Nothing would go on at work (not negotiable)

And last, but most important – SHE WOULD NOT FALL IN LOVE.

She didn't really think she could fall in love with him given his phobia of emotional intimacy, but even knowing that she was under the influence of post-coital bliss it had been difficult to not curl up in bed with him and spend the night. It was only the image of an awkward morning after that helped her stick to her rules.

God, she ran her hand over her brow as she got into her car. She could barely function just imagining them waking up together, trying not to look each other in the eyes and then running into each other at work a short time later. This way they would both be able to get a good night's rest before and have hours of buffer time in between their play and work.

Then when this was over, whether it was days or weeks, she would have had some fun and be open for whatever and whoever came next.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

"Do you want to get together tonight?"

Robin looked up at Patrick from where she sat on the bench between lockers. She was clad, like the last time he barged in, only in a bra and pants. This time a rose colored bra and jeans. She didn't even bother to comment because it wasn't like he hadn't seen it before. Or touched it. Touched her. The thought sent a shaft of lust through her body.

It's been two days, one night, since she left him gaping behind her on the bed. Since then, they hadn't really spoken except as their jobs required and she assumed that, like her, he had been engaging in avoidance tactics. She can't imagine that he's happy about how she walked out on him, but then she can't imagine that he'd really complain either. He was the one who refused to give emotional intimacy a try while she, though rusty, was willing to give it a shot. She reminds herself that she agrees that it's for the best.

"Sure." Her shirt is hanging forgotten in her hands. His gaze felt like it was burning her bare skin.

"I have two more consults and a surgical follow-up." He stood with his hands on his hips flaring out the white lab coat he wore over blue scrubs. He wasn't exactly glowering, but he definitely wasn't smiling either. Whatever the expression was meant to convey, it made Robin nervous, but not nervous enough to pass up another opportunity to feel the weight and fill of him.

"I'll meet you at the hotel in a couple of hours." She wondered if he could hear her heart beating, echoing, in the locker room or if that was just her hyperactive imagination.

Patrick opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and nodded curtly before gruffly agreeing and walking out. Robin guesses this means that he didn't spend last night with another woman, at least not having sex. There are a lot of things she could say about Patrick that would not be flattering, and she has, but she knew he would keep his word in this. She also assumes that hadn't gotten his fill of her either.

As she finishes changing back into street clothes she wondered what he had been about say.

>>>>>>

A little over an hour after she left the hospital she was cleaning up after her hurried dinner when the telephone rang.

"Hello?" She said into the cordless phone she took down from its cradle on the wall near the kitchen entry.

"Robin, how are you, luv?"

Robin closed the dishwasher and leaned back against the kitchen counter and smiled. "Hi Mom. I'm great. How are you? Where are you?"

"Back in London. Have you heard from your father?"

"He was just in Port Charles, not that he let me know, and then he blew out of town again to chase Luke to the Markham Islands." Robin bit her lip, fighting back the anxiety thinking of her father churned up these days.

"Robin, what happened? There's something in your voice. What did that bastard do?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter." Robin shook her head and toyed with a pencil she had sitting with a pad near the phone. She never could get one over on her mother. She didn't know if that was motherly instinct or WSB training. Probably both.

"Robin!"

Unable to resist her mother's authoritative tone she told her what her father had said to her. She refused to cry over him and the hurtful words, but how she wanted to.

"I'm going to find him and kill him."

"Please don't, I can't go to another funeral for him."

"Ah, luv, I'm so sorry. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He hasn't had the joy of knowing you."

"The thing is, Mom, some of what he said was true, but I'm intent on changing that."

"You don't need to change, but a little fun might be in order." Anna's voice was a loving lecture.

"I thought so too. Remember I told you about Dr. Patrick Drake?"

"The, what did you call him, insufferable pig who took such good care of you when you were sick?"

"We're, uh…" Robin broke off. Maybe this wasn't something she should be telling her mother?

"Dating? How wonderful, Robin! I could tell from the way you spoke about him that you were quite taken with him."

"Not exactly dating, Mom."

"Robin Anna Scorpio, what does not exactly dating mean?"

Robin winced at the censorious tone. "We're having a fling."

"I take it this was his idea. What I can't fathom is why you agreed to it!"

"Because I want to." Robin closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. Did no one in her life think her capable of having fun? Were these not the same people who kept nagging at her to do just this?

"Robin, darling, you can't have a fling with someone you already have feelings for. For someone like you it would be hard enough anyway."

Robin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Why was it the only person who thought she was a sensible adult was Patrick? "I'm fine, I'm enjoying myself." Or at least they would be once they adjusted to the situation, she told herself as she remembered the past two days of uncharacteristic avoidance at the hospital. If they continued to see each other maybe they would start to spend time together outside the hospital and outside bed?

Wait, Robin paused, wasn't there a rule against that?

"Darling, I just worry for you. Mother's prerogative. If you hear from your father, let me know."

"Is there something wrong?" Robin frowned as a familiar feeling washed over her. Something she hadn't felt in years. Her mother didn't hold the exclusive on being able to read tones of voice.

"No, luv. I just want to finally see my ex-husband. I love you."

"I love you, too." Robin hung up the phone unable to shake the feeling that something was going on with her father that her mother didn't want her to know.

>>>>>>>>>

"So eager, Dr. Scorpio, that you're waiting by my door?" Patrick commented as she pulled out his key card and leaned down to press a kiss to Robin's lips.

"You're late." She followed him into the room.

"Dr. Quartermaine wanted to talk to me before I left."

"About what?" Robin put her purse down on the chair closest to the door and watched as Patrick began emptying his pockets out on to the dresser. It began to feel too domestic so she walked over to the window and looked out at the view of Port Charles.

"He got wind of the competition between me and my father and wanted to warn me not to be reckless." Patrick's tone was dismissive, but Robin silently agreed with Alan's concern. Both Noah and Patrick were amazing doctors in her estimation, but bravado had felled others before them. She opened her mouth to say so, but before she could speak Patrick, his white shirt unbuttoned, walked over and put his hands on her shoulders and began to knead the tension out of them.

"It's a pretty night." Robin grimaced at the inane comment, but once again she was feeling constrained by their situation. Normally they would talk about work or Noah or her concern about her father, but this was a situation that was anything but normal and she was afraid to bring anything too personal into the conversation while he was touching her. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead to the cool glass. Her breath formed a fog and then disappeared.

"You're pretty." Patrick bit his lip and traced his fingers over her jaw line, watching her reaction in the window. "Still can't take a compliment."

"You still need to teach me." She leaned back and looked up at him. As she looked into his deep brown eyes she reminded herself that the entire point of agreeing to do this was to break down some of the guard that held her back from life. There was nothing in the rules that said she had to pretend she and Patrick were complete strangers having sex appointments. Part of the reason she decided to have the fling with him was because of that fact. It would be tricky, but she decided to try and relax.

He leaned down and gave her a soft kiss with just a hint of tongue. "What's wrong? You're tense." His eyes darted around her face obviously looking for some clue as to what she was thinking.

"My mother called, she was asking about my father. I got this old feeling that something is going on. That he's in some kind of danger." She let him turn her around and stood pliant as he looped his arms around her.

"You're worried about him. That's a good sign."

"I lived through him being brutally murdered once and I have no mind to do it again."

"You care about him, there's nothing wrong with admitting it. You heard me admit it to my father."

Robin stared hard at Patrick. "Fine, I care about him enough to not want to see him murdered."

"Such a generous concession, Robin," Patrick said dryly. "Do you want a glass of wine?"

"No."

"What do you want?" he asked huskily, pulling her more tightly against him, showing her how much he wanted her.

In answer she stood up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss her. She let herself get lost in the kiss, but at the end of the night she knew she would still sleep alone. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5 **

"Good morning, Dr. Scorpio. You look well-rested."

Robin looked up from the form she was filling out at the nurse's station at Patrick who was leaning against the counter across from her. She didn't bother to suppress the smile his comment elicited. "Good morning to you, Dr. Drake. You look a little tense this morning."

"Well, now that you mention it. I might need to work out some tension tonight." His smile turned from teasing to wolfish in a split second.

"You don't say." Robin arched her eyebrows and looked back down at her form.

"Do you want to help me work out that tension tonight, Dr. Scorpio?" Patrick leaned in closer and spoke so only she could hear him.

"I think that might be doable, Dr. Drake. Someone needs to check your incision since you checked out of the hospital too early."

"Are you saying you want to play doctor?" Patrick licked his lips and grinned at her.

Robin finally deigned to look at him. "You're incorrigible." But she smiled when she said it.

"I prefer the word insatiable. You left me wanting more last night, Robin." He plucked the pen out of her fingers. "But I'm sure that was part of your strategy."

She was taken aback by the simmering emotion in his eyes. "I'm not…"

"You are playing games with me, Robin. But that's okay. I like playing games almost as much as I like winning. See you later." Patrick dropped the pen onto the counter and sauntered away.

Robin frowned and picked up her pen, but didn't immediately go back to writing. Stop it, she ordered herself as she realized she was starting to analyze his reaction and his intentions. This was supposed to be casual. One of the benefits of that was that they didn't owe each other any explanations and she didn't have to twist herself into knots to be who he wanted her to be. She would live with her rules, enjoy his body and his company. That was it. She continued to fill out her lab requisition.

>>>>>>>>>

"You're leaving?" Patrick's voice was flat as Robin got up from the tangle of blankets, sheets and limbs.

"We came right from work. I don't have anything to wear tomorrow or enough of my meds." She shoved her bra into her purse and pulled on her shirt and buttoned her slacks. Seeing him look so blank after the mind blowing session they'd just had tugged at Robin, seeing no harm if she kept it light she put her knees on the bed and leaned over and kissed him.

His hand snaked around her and held her head prisoner as he slid his tongue inside her mouth, tasting, teasing and dragging her under his spell for another moment. She was sighing when he let her go. She was both relieved and disappointed that he didn't ask her to stay.

"Good night," she whispered before leaving. This time she paused right outside his door, looking at it as if she could see through it. Her body and her emotions ached to go back inside and lose herself in his arms again. To lie against his warmth and just for a little while longer and pretend they shared the emotional connection he wouldn't let them make.

Chemicals, she reminded herself and forced herself to go home.

>>>>>>>>

"What's with Patrick Drake lately? I don't think he's asked anyone out since his surgery."

Robin stopped short on the other side of the lockers at the mention of Patrick's name.

"I dunno, maybe they took out more than his liver if you know what I mean?"

"He looks fully-functional to me." The words of the young-sounding woman were a lustful sigh.

Nurses, Robin realized, talking about Patrick Drake. This was not a new occurrence, in fact it seemed like every time she was in the locker room some nurse or other was asking her about Patrick Drake since they worked together so often.

"Maybe administration finally told him to stop harassing all the women in the hospital," said another female voice, her voice full of amusement.

"He can harass me anytime, anywhere and in any position." Murmurs of agreement were heard over the closing of locker doors.

"I think he's involved with Dr. Scorpio. You should see them arguing, it's kind of hot to watch. And he's always looking at her."

"Doesn't she have HIV?"

Robin stiffened.

"Yeah, that's why she's campaigning to start up the Nurse's Ball again. I saw her speak at one back when I was in nursing school."

"I miss those."

"Yeah, me too. We should give her a hand with that, we are nurses." More murmurs of agreement were heard.

"Dr. Drake must really be in to her. Lucky woman. His father is hot too. He's single."

Robin slipped out of the locker room before she was spotted. She couldn't get all the things she heard off her mind for the rest of the day.

>>>>>>>>

"What time do you _get off_ tonight?" Patrick asked as he walked into the lab where Robin was peering into a microscope.

"Does everything you say have to be a sexual innuendo?" Catching his leer she rolled her eyes and made a notation onto her clipboard.

"Come on, you know you like it." His voice was teasing, but Robin also picked up a hint of impatience.

"You have the maturity of a twelve year old." She looked him up and down wondering what was upsetting him. Had he fought with Noah again? Or was the demand of monogamy too much for him to deal with? From what she had overheard the nurses saying he wasn't asking anyone else out, but then she had learned the hard way not to put too much stock into what she overheard in the locker room.

"And still you can't resist my body." Patrick held his arms out to show off the aforementioned goods.

Robin rolled her eyes again and changed slides. "I won't be done for another hour. I can meet you at your room."

"I'll order dinner for us." It wasn't an invitation.

"Thanks, but I already ate." She looked through the scope again and then made another notation. She didn't realize Patrick hadn't left until he leaned against the bench next to her. "What?"

He crossed his arms. "Why are you acting like you're coming over to service me?"

"My meds were upsetting my stomach and I needed to have something eat." It was the truth, but if it wasn't she would have found another reason to avoid sharing a private meal with him. They'd been having their "fling" for over two weeks now, had spent half those nights making mad, passionate love, sex, she amended hastily, and for all of them she had avoided sharing anything more intimate than some wine and had never stayed the night. She was more than managing to avoid being emotionally entangled with it all, in fact, she was feeling more disconnected from him than ever. She assumed that he welcomed this.

"Oh." Clearly, thrown, Patrick uncrossed his arms and straightened up. "Are you feeling all right now?"

"I'm fine. I just need to finish these measurements and then I can come over."

Patrick thought for a moment. "Did you bring something to change into tomorrow morning?"

"No." She could see where he was leading her and had been hoping to avoid this conversation a lot longer or, to tell the truth, completely. She put her pen down and crossed her arms.

"Then I'll just meet you at your place."

"No, that's not convenient for me."

"I know what you're doing."

Robin looked over at him and schooled her features into an expression of mild interest, but inside she was a quivering mess of chaos. This was it, she was sure, he was going to end it, having had enough of her inability to just go with the flow and not having a queue for his bed.

"You're treating this like a…a booty call to get me to change my mind and suddenly want to be your boyfriend, Robin. I can't be manipulated." He spoke quietly and his tone was completely serious. She wanted to punch him.

"You are such an arrogant jerk!" She couldn't believe he thought that, but at the same time she wasn't surprised.

"You're the one acting like a jerk!" He pointed his finger at her.

"You want no strings sex, that's what you're getting and now you're complaining about it!" Robin threw her hands up in aggravation.

"What else am I supposed to think, Robin? I know you enjoy my company outside bed. Just because we've agreed there's no future in this doesn't mean we can't keep doing that along with enjoying mind blowing bed gymnastics."

"And you know that I enjoy your company because we've spent so much time together outside the hospital before now." Robin crossed her arms.

"We would have if you weren't resisting me."

"Oh my god. You make no sense."

"Acting on the passion that we both obviously feel was supposed to add to what we already had, not take away from it," Patrick snapped.

"According to you we didn't have anything because you don't want to emotionally connect."

"I said I didn't want commitment, that's not the same thing!" Patrick stopped and took a deep breath before speaking more calmly. "I care about you, Robin and I have never treated you like you're a hooker, you're the one doing that. If you would stop with these games we could both have a good time. I know you care about me though apparently you'd rather cut your tongue out than admit it for some reason."

"Great, now I'm a hooker."

"Showing up at my hotel room for sex and then leaving and barely talking to me any other time seems a lot like prostitution to me and I'm getting really sick of it."

"You would know wouldn't you?"

"Don't turn this around on me," Patrick said reasonably.

Robin looked at Patrick like he had three heads. She couldn't believe he was serious. "You ass. Did it ever occur to you that rather than trying to manipulate the amazing Patrick Drake into being my committed boyfriend," Robin said the last few words mockingly, "I'm trying to deal with this the best way I can so I don't get everything all muddled up. Not everything is about you, Patrick."

Patrick shot a worried look at his shoes.

"I don't think for one minute that you're boyfriend material for me, all right, but the only people I've ever had sex with were men that I loved very deeply. I'm trying to keep this clean for the both of us. Maybe after a while, if it lasts that long, I'll be able to spend time with you and have sex with you without worrying that hormones will confuse me."

"Oh." Patrick licked his bottom lip and frowned. "Do you still want to come over tonight?"

Robin didn't know whether to laugh or scream. She turned back to the work bench for a moment before swinging around to look at him again. "I'll be there."

"Okay." Patrick walked to the door and then hesitated. "If you had just told me what was going on I could have tried to help you. I'll do what I can to make sure this stays clean, for both of us, all right?"

Robin turned her head to look at him. Though he infuriated her, he was right, they were more than just sexual partners. "Why don't you order me some dessert? Something chocolate?" She offered as a concession.

"With syrup and whipped cream." He winked at her, flashed a dimple and left.

Robin turned back towards the work bench and smiled as she pulled out the next slide she needed to track. She was really crap at this casual stuff, but maybe now that it was out in the open it would be easier. He hadn't walked away and that meant something. Right?


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6 **

Robin hesitated before knocking on Patrick's hotel room door. Since their heated discussion in the lab she had been feeling alternately relieved and nervous. Relieved that they'd gotten back to a state of communication that was normal for them – combative and straight - and nervous at the things that had gotten said. She felt like she was slipping off the track she had set with herself with those rules and now didn't know where she was going to end up.

As much as she's tried to repress it over the past couple of weeks, she knew that she had been working harder than she should have to in order to keep her feelings in check. She'd been warned about this by two people who know her better than anyone - Brenda and her mother – and her dismissals now ring hollow. She almost didn't show up, but the truth is she didn't want to end things.

She didn't want to give up the best sex of her life. She didn't want to give up how it made her feel when he looks at her like she's the most beautiful and desirable thing he's ever seen. When he touches her like he can't and won't ever get enough of her. She knows she should, she simply doesn't want to.

She waited a moment after her first knock, but there was still no answer. She wondered if he'd decided that it was getting too complicated and is blowing her off. She frowned and knocked again. Down the hall the elevator doors opened.

"Hey." His voice carried down the hall.

Robin turned to find Patrick walking out of the elevator obviously coming from the hotel gym. He was wearing a sweaty gray sleeveless cotton shirt and navy blue shorts. He carried a white hotel towel and was covered in sweat. He looked even sexier to Robin like that than he did in scrubs. But not as sexy as he looked naked and aroused.

"Sorry I'm running behind." Patrick slid his hand down the back of Robin's head as he opened the hotel door and pushed it open above her head to let her in ahead of him. "Let me go take a shower."

"Sure." Robin watched him walk right past her and into the bathroom. She had a strong urge to follow him into the shower, but his words strip that idea out of her head.

"There's a menu near the phone. Can you order me a chicken sandwich, some extra water, some fries and whatever you want for dessert for two?" he called out as he turned on the water.

"Okay," Robin said slowly to herself as she realized she was not invited to partake in water activities. She again began to worry that he's going to let her down easy. To distract herself she picked up the receiver and pressed the button for room service. She placed the order, not needing the menu as she was already familiar with the luscious desserts on the Metrocourt menu, and hung up. Then she looked around for something to occupy her mind and hands while Patrick was in the other room wet and naked. She closed her eyes and blew out a breath before wandering further into the room.

On the table by the window she saw he had paperwork spread out. It was a general mish-mash of things. Bank statements, a couple of more recent medical journals, including she noted with surprise the French-language medical journal she just finished an article for and had been published in many times over the past few years, some patient forms and, she couldn't help picking it up, real estate listings.

She felt a tightness in her chest as she looked at the evidence that Patrick was planning to make his stay in Port Charles more permanent than his continued living in a hotel room had indicated. The custom report had listings for all types of housing, as if he hadn't made up his mind about what he wanted. Some were for the new downtown lofts, condos near the harbor, a townhouse and even a few houses around the size of the house she used to own. As she turned the page it occurred to her that without even realizing it she had been expecting all this time that Patrick would pick up and leave; his commitment to General Hospital notwithstanding. Before she could delve into why this discovery made her breathless Patrick came out of the bathroom.

"I'm going to look at some places tomorrow." He walked over, rubbing a towel over his wet hair, and looked over her shoulder. "I know you have off too, I'd appreciate you coming along and giving me your opinion. I know how you love to do that anyway." His words held more than just a friendly inquiry, the measured tone told her that he was being careful. Far from blowing her off he was doing just what he said he'd do. He's making small advances to make her comfortable with him outside bed. He's cementing their friendship.

Robin blinked and opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. "Yeah, I could do that." The moments the words left her mouth she realized that it put her in a poor position for not staying over tonight, a rule she is steadfastly committed to. Unnerved, she put the paper down and sidestepped away from his mostly naked body and suggested they clean off the table for dinner.

"Robin." Patrick clasped her upper arm and waited until she looked at him to speak. "What's going on in that busy brain of yours? I said I'd try to make you comfortable with this and I meant it. If you don't want to come with me it's fine. I just know how much you love telling me how I should live my life and this was the perfect opportunity to tell me where." He smiled and shrugged.

Robin studied his expression for a moment before talking. "Staying over. I was worried about staying over." She stopped and blew out a breath. Then in frustration she rubbed her hands over her face. "I'm over thinking this." She uncovered her face in time to see Patrick bite back a smirk. "The sex must be really good if you're willing to put up with me."

"Being with you." Patrick reached out and circled her waist with his hands and pulled her towards him. "Is amazing. And when you allow yourself to enjoy yourself, to have a real conversation with me, I can't get enough of spending time with you."

Robin blushed and put her palms on his naked shoulders. She could feel him hardening under the towel tied around his waist.

"You're an incredible woman, Robin." His voice was husky and his eyes darkened with desire as they stared into each others eyes. "This is not just about sex, all right?"

"That's what worries me," she whispered.

"Let's make a deal. An agreement, you like those," he teased and dipped his head down closer. "You go with the flow, we both go with the flow, and if you start to feel like you're getting in over your head you tell me and we both deal with it. Agreed?"

She didn't know whether it was because his offer was so uncharacteristically generous or because she was intoxicated by his nearness but she expressed her agreement by stretching up to press her lips against his. It was her tongue that sought and gained entry into his mouth. She who pressed herself against his now urgent erection. She who moaned as she trailed her hands down his smooth, muscular back to release his towel to the floor. She who slid her hand between their bodies to wrap it around him and stroked him in the rhythm she had learned made him lose control.

"Robin." He surged into her strokes and dug his fingers into her back. "Robin." His voice was a broken moan punctuated by gasps.

She tightened her grip on his silky hardness, using his pre-release to lubricate her steady movements. She didn't stop when she felt his warm wetness spill over her hand, but continued to draw out his pleasure until he slumped over and blew his unsteady pants into her ear.

"Where did that come from?" He sloppily nibbled her ear.

"I agreed to go with the flow." She smoothed a hand down his waist to cup his firm, bare ass cheek.

"Hallelujah. I need to lie down and you need to come with me."

>>>>>>>>

They ate their meal naked and in bed. As threatened, Patrick shared her dessert by smearing it on various parts of her body and nibbling it off. Still in the spirit of going with the flow, Robin did the same to him. Hours later she was resting her cheek on his strong thigh and couldn't imagine she'd ever have the energy to move again. Unless, she amended with a glance at his slack member, he did.

His fingers were gently sliding through her hair, massaging her scalp.

Robin closed her eyes and let herself drift on sensation and afterglow. She heard Patrick's soft breathing in the distance and couldn't think fast enough to try and push away the feelings that were coursing through her. This felt right, but at the same time so wrong. She was uber-conscious that this was a moment-by-moment situation and that in five minutes he could decide he wanted to move on to future conquests. Robin blew out a deep breath as she opened herself up to the probability that she would be hurt.

"You all right?"

Robin realized from his question that she was trembling. A lot of it was fear, but some of it was pure emotional release. She'd had this wall up for so long she didn't even realize it was there. She felt bare, vulnerable and her body was humming with adrenaline and post-coital hormones. Her fight-flight instinct kicked in. She quickly sat up and began to slide off the bed.

"Hey! Hey!" Patrick sat up and chased her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I need to go." She scrambled up, so intent on leaving she didn't even bother to hide her nudity as she scrambled for her clothes and to get dressed. She was sitting on the chair by the table where she had found the real estate listings putting on her shoes when she was startled by a still-naked Patrick Drake kneeling down in front her.

"What just happened, Robin?" he asked softly.

"I…I can't do this, Patrick." She stopped what she was doing and looked at him; the looking into each other's eyes for a long moment.

"You felt…something, for me, didn't you?" he asked softly.

Robin looked away. "I know you don't want that. _I_ don't want that." She shook her head in self-deprecation.

"Robin, look at me." When she did he continued. "What I said I want was casual, that doesn't mean devoid of all…feeling. I thought I made that clear earlier. If meaningless sex was all I wanted there's plenty of sports bars in Port Charles and plenty of." He stopped and ran a hand through his already messy hair. "I won't lie to you and make promises I won't keep, but it is you I want right now. That I…I thought I'd work this out of my system, but being with you just makes me want you more." Patrick's eyes softened. "But I'll step back and put an end to this if that's what you need." Patrick stroked her hair off her face and licked his lips as he waited for her answer.

TBC 


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 7 **

"But I'll step back and put an end to this if that's what you need." Patrick stroked her hair off her face and licked his lips as he waited for her answer.

"I'm not trying to manipulate you, Patrick. I just need an emotional connection with the person I share my body with." The words were so hard for her to get out. So hard to say knowing that somehow she'd had to muster up the strength to walk away and not look back. "I can't seem to be able to find a middle ground."

"I care for you, Robin," Patrick whispered huskily, his hand still on her cheek. When she said nothing he continued, "How do you feel about me?"

Robin took a deep breath. "I guess the same. I care about you, too."

"Then why fight it and walk away? We could have a really great time together."

Robin thought about his question. Could she really be more vulnerable or hurt than she was already feeling at the idea of walking away from this? This was lust and caring, mixed with professional admiration and respect. How could she pass that up, even for the short time she would have it?

"You're right. Sorry I overreacted, again." Robin dipped her head and smiled shyly at him.

"Will you stay or should I take you home?"

>>>>>>>>

"This is an interesting role reversal."

Robin walked in from her run to find Patrick Drake standing at her apartment door with two cups of coffee and a bag of goodies in his hands.

"I could swear you're not supposed to be here for another hour, at least." She pulled her keys out of her hip pack and pushed her ear buds in.

"I thought I'd surprise you with breakfast." He waited as she unlocked her door. "That's all right, isn't it?"

"It's more than all right. It's a relief. I haven't been food shopping in weeks." Robin opened the door and closed it as he walked right into the apartment and began setting up their breakfast at the dining room table.

"Do you want to shower before you eat?" He looked at her still standing awkwardly across the room by the door.

"Is the coffee hot?" she asked. When he nodded she unzipped her sweatshirt and tossed the sweaty mess onto the floor and joined him at the table. She inhaled the scent. "Kelly's." Then took a sip. As she did, her eyes opened wide and she looked at him in wide-eyed pleasure. "Soy milk. How did you know?"

Patrick shrugged, but was obviously pleased at the acknowledgement.

"This is so great, Patrick." She stopped and squinted her eyes at him. "Are you buttering me up for something?"

"Not really." Patrick scratched his left eyebrow with his right hand and shrugged.

"What's 'not really'?" she broke a piece off the lemon poppy seed muffin he pushed towards her.

"I'm fueling you up for some grueling real estate shopping is all."

"Coffee definitely works for that. I'm an addict." Robin nodded. "There's this _patisserie_ near the hospital with the most amazing _café au lait_. I would go there twice a day for a fix. It was quite an addiction. It was the best coffee I'd ever had in my life. Kelly's coffee is a close second."

"Do you think you'll go back?" Patrick's voice was light as he toyed with his bagel-egg sandwich.

"To Paris?" Robin shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe London or Rome. Or Barcelona. I adore Barcelona. But I don't have any plans to leave Port Charles right now. I've always wanted to work at General Hospital, without the pixie boots."

"Oh." Patrick toyed with a slice of bacon and avoided meeting her gaze.

"Do you think you'll go back to New York? I mean I know you're considering buying a place here, but…" she trailed off.

"I like Port Charles. As crazy as it is. And I kind of always wanted to work at General Hospital too. My father talked about it when I was a kid."

After a long, uncomfortable pause, Robin stood up with her coffee in hand. "I'll go shower and then we can get started on picking you a home."

>>>>>>

"Is this your fiancé? You didn't tell me. It's so lovely to meet you and it's good that he brought you along since it'll be your home too!" Patrick's realtor, contrary to Robin's expectation of a twenty-something willowy blonde, was middle-aged, thick in the waist and had puffy, teased hair. And as Robin was to discover, spoke in run-on sentences filled with assumptions based on how she wanted things to be. She was like an older, fashion-challenged Brenda.

"I'm not…" Robin began to protest.

"You're right, Robin's opinion is very key in what we choose today." Patrick put his arm around Robin and rocked her against his side, not bothering to bite back his smirk.

Robin turned and gave Patrick a puzzled look.

"Wonderful." Marion clapped her hands, causing her folder of listings to flap. "We'll take my car."

"We'll follow you in my car, in case either of us get called to the hospital for an emergency," Patrick interjected.

"Oh, are you a nurse?"

"I'm a doctor," Robin said through clenched lips.

"That must be where you fell in love, just like in Grey's Anatomy. I love that show."

"Er, not exactly." Robin frowned and let Patrick pull her towards his Mercedes.

"Why are you letting her think I'm your fiancé and we're going to be living together?" Robin asked when he got behind the wheel.

Patrick looked at her with a deadly serious expression. "Because she scares me, Robin."

Robin opened her mouth to say something, but ended up laughing instead as he started the car. "Are you serious?" she gasped.

"Did you want to get into a conversation with her about who you are and why you're here?"

"You could have said I was your sister. Or friend." She waved her hand to indicate she didn't care which one.

"That would have been rather awkward when I kiss you," he said dryly as he started the car.

"You're planning to kiss me while you're shopping to real estate?" Her heart started pounding. She had been explaining all this to herself as a friendly outing, but it was quickly starting to become more like a "date" or something even more intimate.

"It'll help me get a real feel for the place, especially the bedrooms." He smirked and pulled out into the road.

Robin rolled her eyes and folded her hands in her lap. The "no dating" rule was one she was still committed to, but as she looked over at her companion and then out at the sunny day, she couldn't bring herself to care.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8 **

"Did you even give Marion a hint about what you wanted?" Robin asked as they got into the car after the fifth rejected property of the day.

The last four hours were a complete bust in terms of finding Patrick somewhere to live. Even though Robin could tell in the first two minutes whether a place suited Patrick he still insisted on looking through each and every room and, as promised, kissing her at every opportunity. Realtor Marion, instead of being annoyed at her time being wasted, crowed like a proud mother at the "romantic couple" and even asked them if they had set a date for their wedding. Before Robin could respond, Patrick had claimed they were still negotiating, what with their busy career schedules. When asked about the ring he unapologetically said that his mother's ring was still being fitted. Robin turned away from Marion's beaming smile to roll her eyes and kicked Patrick in the shin once they were out of sight. Patrick had just laughed and pressed her against the wall and kissed her senseless, though it didn't change their opinion that the house they were viewing was too matronly for him.

"I tried." Patrick sighed and rested his hands on the steering wheel. "She has her own ideas."

"How in the world did you find her?" Robin asked about the woman who seemed to have taken a motherly interest in Patrick. Robin had begun to suspect a motive more than wanting to make a lucrative commission on the woman's part. Apparently, she had a thirty-something unmarried daughter and had previously shown Patrick the woman's photo. Patrick whispered to Robin that Marion was in denial about her daughter's sexuality. Robin suspected that with one look at Patrick that might not matter, though she didn't say so out loud.

"Liz recommended her."

"Liz Webber Spencer? The girl that I've known for more than a third of my life? She recommended Marion to you?" Robin gasped. When Patrick grumbled confirmation she broke into full-fledged laughter. "Oh, she is so getting you back for all that flirting."

"Probably," Patrick admitted wryly, setting Robin off into another gale of laughter.

She was wiping tears from under her eyes when she noticed he was grinning at her. "What?" she asked.

"I've never heard you laugh like that. Granted it was at my expense, but still nice to hear." He shot her a sweet look.

"Oh," Robin mumbled to herself and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Where to next?"

"The new harbor apartments."

"Oh, I heard those are fabulous." This was more Patrick's speed, she was sure of it. She pulled out her lip balm in anticipation of their next stop.

>>>>>>

Robin knew within ten seconds it was perfect. The space, the light, the view, the feel just felt like Patrick. It had two floors, three bedrooms, four bathrooms and an amazing view from all of the windows and two balconies. If they weren't looking for Patrick she would have taken it for herself.

Robin wandered into the kitchen and looked around. In here, she thought to herself, she could cook some amazing meals. It made her realize how small the kitchen in her rental apartment really was, though it had seemed so large compared to the kitchenette in her Paris apartment.

"Do you even cook?" Robin asked as Patrick walked into the kitchen while she was inspecting a pantry that she was fairly certain was larger than the bathroom at her apartment. "This is a serious cook's kitchen."

"I know my way around." He flipped the light on and off on the range hood that came down from the ceiling above the cook top on the kitchen island. "My mother taught me."

Robin smiled at the image of a young Patrick learning to cook at his mother's knee. "You'll have to show me," she said without thinking.

"That way I might actually get fed," Patrick commented as he stuck his head in one of the ovens on the wall around the corner from where Robin was standing.

Robin grimaced and then grinned. "You got fed last night," she pointed out with a husky tone.

"And you even ordered for me." Patrick closed the oven door with a snap and turned his head and gave her a heated look.

Robin licked her lips and turned around, her hands on her hips. "I seriously like this place already."

"Uh uh, Scorpio. It hasn't been properly tested." He put his hand on her shoulder and leaned down over her. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes, anticipating the slide of his lips over hers. She moaned and let him manhandle her around until she was flush against him. When he deepened the kiss she grabbed at his shirt near his shoulders and opened herself up to him. She was seriously on fire. Hours and hours of foreplay having taken its toll on her and, she could feel him pulsing against her, on him.

"God, I want you," Patrick moaned into her ear and rocked his hips.

"You must." She panted. "Really like this." She moaned as he cupped her swollen and aching breast. "Apartment."

"Let's go check out the upstairs." Patrick stepped back, licked his lips and looked down at her with hooded eyes.

>>>>>>>

He took her to the first bedroom, which he declared would be his office/work out room. There, he pressed her against the wall, her feet dangling as he rocked against her center through her pants until she came.

He took her to the second bedroom, which he declared would be an actual guest room and kissed her against every wall to help him decide where the bed should go.

In the master suite he took her first into the bathroom where he made her get into the spa tub with him to prove that it was indeed large enough for two and playacted some of the things they could get up to in there. When he tried to get her into the glass block shower with two showerheads, however, she refused under suspicion that he would turn the water on and try to get a peep show through her white shirt.

Then they inspected the large walk in closet.

And finally the master bedroom.

He stood in the middle of the room with his arms out facing the glass windows that made up one wall and in the middle of which were doors out onto a nice-sized balcony. The view of the city and the river was phenomenal.

"Lie down."

"What?" Robin turned around from the built in shelves she was inspecting to see him pointing to the North wall.

"Lie down. I want to see where the bed should go."

"I don't need to lie down for that." She put her hands on her hips, her resistance purely token.

"Please?" he cajoled and bat his eyelashes at her.

She sighed and walked to where he pointed. "Lie down," he instructed again. She complied. He walked around her as if making a serious study of the light and positioning relative to the room set up. "How do you sleep? Lie like that."

Robin was jarred by the question. For as physically intimate as they were he had no idea in what position she slept. Nor did she know how he slept. Wordlessly, she turned over until she was sprawled out on her stomach. Seconds ticked by. "Can I get up now?"

"No."

She jumped when his voice came from so close. She turned her head to find him lying on his side only inches from her body. Robin's mouth went dry from the way he was looking at her and her heart beat sped up. She wanted to ask him what he was thinking, what he was doing, but she couldn't speak.

He placed his hand on the back of her neck and leaned forward and began a tender exploration of her mouth with his tongue. She sighed into his mouth and let him deepen the kiss. He only touched her with his mouth and with the hand on the back of her neck, but she could feel the sensations of the slow, sultry kiss that went on and on throughout her entire body. Her gentle sighs were lost in him.

"Yooohooo!"

Robin jerked back at the sound of Marion's warning that she was coming up the stairs. Her lips were tingling as she looked at Patrick who hadn't moved and was just looking back at her, his dark eyes unreadable. Swallowing, Robin stood up and walked over and opened the balcony doors, needing the fresh spring air to cool her heated skin.

She stayed outside, her stomach in knots and her nerves on edge, until Patrick came to tell her he was done. She deliberately avoided the hand that he reached out to guide her out of the bedroom and down the stairs. As the three of them stood waiting for the elevator, Marion went on and on about how much he would love the building, the neighbors, the neighborhood and a run down on the amenities. If she noticed that Robin was unusually silent she didn't comment.

By the time they got outside the building to the car, Robin had managed to force herself into some semblance of calm. The kiss was just foreplay, seduction, she told herself firmly, ignoring the sensation in her gut that told her that it was so much more. She reached into her purse and put on her sunglasses as Patrick walked to the driver's side. When he got in he looked over at her, swallowed and opened his mouth to say something.

Robin froze.


	9. Chapter 9

**Part 9 **

"Thanks for today. You were a big help." Patrick's voice was husky as he dipped his head and rested his hands on the steering wheel. He took a breath and shifted in his seat.

"My pleasure." Robin licked her lips and watched him cautiously.

Patrick cleared his throat and then looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "You asked this morning if I was trying to butter you up for something, the truth is there is something else I need to ask you."

Robin nodded, her heart pounding in her chest so hard she wondered how he couldn't hear it.

"You have a patient, Nancy Dixon, I want to..."

"Oh, um. Yeah." Robin interrupted, too surprised to hold her tongue. She shook her head to refocus herself "I'll show you the file if you want, but you can't operate."

"You don't get to make that decision, Dr. Scorpio. Your drugs are not going to save her. Her husband approached me this morning. I met with him before I came over."

"I know there's nothing I can do for her but make her comfortable." Robin leaned back in the chair and sighed regretfully. "Dr. Quatermaine already spoke to your father about performing the surgery, but I…"

"He can't do this surgery! That damned fool!" Patrick gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white.

"He knows it's a long shot, Patrick." Robin's professional opinion was that her patient's condition was inoperable, she had simply waited too long to seek diagnosis and treatment, and that it would be best for her to live out the rest of her life with some measure of quality time with her husband and son. Chances were over ninety percent that she would die on the operating table thereby cutting down that time, but she could understand the need to try anything to defy the odds.

"Which is why my father can't perform this surgery!"

"You think him losing a patient so soon will set him back to drinking, don't you?"

"No, I _know_ that losing this patient will destroy him." Patrick's eyes darkened as he looked at her with an intensity she rarely saw in him. "He operated on a woman once with this condition. He lost her on the table."

"Your mother." Robin instantly understood. "I wish you had told me about this earlier, I am the doctor of record." Robin rubbed her temples. This was a mess. For everyone. "We need to get to the hospital."

Patrick turned the key in the ignition.

>>>>>>>

"Who should I choose?"

"Patrick Drake."

"Then that's who I choose."

"I'll let them know." Robin turned and left Jim and Nancy Dixon in her hospital room. Both Patrick and Noah were determined to do the surgery and had reluctantly agreed after a heated discussion to leave it in the hands of the patient and her family, which they all knew meant Robin who desperately wanted to say anyone but a Drake. She'd even call Gwen Miller over to GH to avoid either Noah or Patrick having their heart broken once again.

In the meantime, Robin knew she'd be getting the heat of the patient's decision and not for the first time she wondered why she wasn't hiding out in a lab and why she was putting herself in the line of fire in the Drake men battles. As she saw them sitting, not looking or speaking to each other she once again resigned herself to the fact that she couldn't stop trying to help these two wonderful men find their way back to each other as father and son. Girding herself mentally, she walked into the waiting area where Patrick and Noah sat in stony silence, both men stood up as she approached.

"They've chosen Patrick."

"We'll schedule it for tomorrow afternoon," Patrick said firmly.

Noah turned on Robin with an accusatory glare. "You don't know what you've done." Then he shoved the file into Patrick's chest and stormed off.

"I'm going to go meet with the Dixons and get things set up for tomorrow afternoon," Patrick said quietly looking after his father's retreating back. "Do you want to come?"

"I'll meet with you later to go over the new MRI's. I have something I need to take care of." Robin put her hand on Patrick's arm before turning and walking away.

>>>>>>

"I want to talk to you!" Robin closed the door to Noah's office, hard.

"I was under the impression that our business was done, Dr. Scorpio." Noah sat down on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms.

"You can be angry at me all you want, but I don't get why you're taking it out on Patrick. He's just trying to protect you."

"I don't need his protection!" Noah snapped.

"Need it or not your son is giving it to you because he loves you. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?" Robin shook her head in wonder. "After everything, all these years, Patrick never gives up on you and you, instead of being grateful, throw it in his face."

"You're off base, Robin, he's just trying to one up me and impress you."

"You're the one who is in competition with Patrick."

"My son is playing right back, I don't think you need to worry about a little friendly competition." He waved his hand dismissively.

"There is nothing friendly about wanting to crush your son's ego and throw his love back in his face. He's not competing, Noah. He's trying to get you to be proud of him and love him like you're supposed to just because he's your son."

Noah didn't say anything, but his arms dropped to his sides and he bent his head, no longer meeting her gaze.

"I've told Patrick he's lucky to have a father who's willing to stick around. But you're the lucky one, Noah, to have a son who is willing to forgive you for leaving him when he needed you most." Robin's smile was sad. "Let him forgive you, if not for your sake, then for his."

When Noah still didn't speak, Robin sighed and left him alone.

>>>>>>>>

A few hours later Robin hadn't heard from Patrick about Nancy Dixon's case so she went looking for him and the MRI's. "Epiphany, have you seen Dr. Drake, Patrick? I need to review the Dixon case with him."

"He left the hospital hours ago. Some doctors actually take their day off," she looked at Robin meaningfully.

Robin ignored the commentary. "May I have the Dixon MRI's?"

"Dr. Drake took those with him," Epiphany informed her.

Robin blinked and jerked back slightly. "I guess I'm out of here then, goodnight." Robin slid her hands into her lab coat.

"Have a good night, Dr. Scorpio."

"Yeah, you too, Epiphany." Robin forced a smile and walked off.

>>>>>>>>

An hour later Robin walked into her apartment with a bag of much needed groceries slung over her shoulder in a canvas bag and a paper sack of chicken soup from Kelly's. She walked into the kitchen and saw that in the sink were the remnants of this morning's breakfast. She briefly touched her fingers to her still swollen lips before forcing her mind away from the stomach-churning events of the past twenty-four hours.

"I'm not going to think about Patrick. I'm not going to think about Patrick," she said out loud, then one more time for good measure as she put the dishes in the dishwasher and unpacked her groceries.

She grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and the bottle of her evening pills and her phone and went into the living room. She automatically set about taking her pills while dialing her voice mail to check her messages. There were two calls from local charities seeking money, one from the dry cleaners telling her she was overdue to pick up her cleaning and the last was a thirty second burst of static. Frowning, she checked out the caller ID and saw that the last call was from an _"Unavailable"_ number.

She sat holding the phone thinking of all the possibilities of the last message. A few reasonable explanations crossed her mind, but none of them felt right. She felt a chill down her spine and clicked her phone back on. She started to enter her calling card number and stopped. A moment later she was back out the door.

>>>>>>

Robin walked through the harbor area. On the curve of the shore up ahead she could see the harbor apartments and to her annoyance she was able to pick out what windows would be Patrick's. But all thoughts of the emotional roller coaster she'd been on lately disappeared as she walked behind what she knew to be one of Sonny's warehouses to one of the few pay phones remaining in the city.

She lifted the receiver and felt a trill of excitement that caught her off guard. She closed her eyes and chuckled softly to herself as she acknowledged that perhaps she wasn't too different from her adventure-seeking parents after all. Why else would she be down at the docks at night to avoid using any of her own phones? With a shrug of her shoulders she dialed the long numbers and waited through the international ring tones. After four she hung up, waited a moment and dialed again. After the second she got a robotic voice telling her the party called was not available.

"Mom, call me back." Robin paused and then hung up. She tightened her black leather coat around her and didn't let herself look at the tall buildings looming over the docks as she took another path through the harbor. Near the launch for Spoon Island she stopped and looked out over the island that figured so prominently in her own past – her family's battles with the Cassadines, a childhood playground and the home of her good friend Nikolas. As if conjured, the very man appeared at her side.

"We don't get a lot of sightseers this time of night." Nikolas stuck his hands in his pockets. "What brings you out here? Thinking of your dad?"

"In a way." Robin gave him a rueful smile. "Heading home?"

Nikolas nodded. "Mind if I walk you? You shouldn't be out here alone at night."

"I can take care of myself," she said, but slipped her arm through the loop of his that he offered.

"Have you heard from your father since he left?"

"No. At least I don't think so."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm probably just hoping too hard." Robin blew out a breath. Nikolas unlatched their arms and put his around her shoulders. "I got a voice mail of static today and I thought maybe it was my dad calling from far away."

"Maybe it was."

"Or maybe it was a faulty auto-dialer from a company wanting to sell me blinds. I get a lot of those." Robin laughed, but it rang hollow.

"It's your father's loss if he's not calling you, but I have a feeling you'll hear from him again soon. He'd be a fool to pass up having a daughter like you." After Robin murmured a thank you, he changed the subject. "Where's Patrick Drake tonight?"

"Patrick. Why do you ask that?" Her attempt at nonchalance didn't come off.

"Liz told me that you two were involved."

Robin stopped walking, halting Nikolas with her. "Liz told you? There's not anything to tell." Robin's heart sped up. She thought they had been careful. She had wanted to keep things on the quiet because she didn't want to face the questions when the answer was that she was just having sex with the man until he got tired of her. She was truly surprised Liz hadn't asked her about it herself. She began walking again.

"What is nothing?"

"It's casual." She looked over at Nikolas to see what his reaction would be.

"Is that what you want?" he asked after a few moments of careful thought.

"Truth?" At his nod she continued. "Everyone is always telling me I don't take enough chances, that I play things too safe. So I leapt before I looked." She twisted her lips in a grimace. "I told myself I couldn't fall in love with him anyway."

"Is that working for you?" They stopped walking underneath a street lamp down the block from her building.

Robin tilted her head back and looked up at the stars peeking out from behind the cloud cover. "Sometimes. When I'm with him I don't want to be anywhere else. When I'm not I think I'm setting myself up for a world of hurt."

"Are you in love with him?"

Robin looked down at the ground. Was she in love with him? The memory of the last kiss they had shared that day sent shivers down her spine. The disappointment that seared through her in the car when his confession was about a patient was just as acute in that moment. "I think I am," she admitted in a quiet voice. If she was honest, she thought to herself, she probably already was when she had agreed to sleep with him.

"Does he love you?"

Robin shook her head. "There are moments I've thought he does, but I was wrong. He cares about me, he's told me that, but he's not interested in anything more." Tears filled her eyes, she sniffled.

"Another foolish man." Nikolas put his arms around her. "If you want me to put a Cassadine curse on him I can. Or I can have him adopted. Let him deal with Helena."

Robin giggled and pulled back. "Thanks, Nikolas. You're always such a good friend to me."

"You are a good friend to me. I just hope Patrick realizes what he has in you before he loses it, because the loss will truly be his."

When Nikolas said it in that sincere, Princely tone of his Robin couldn't doubt he meant what he said. It was some comfort. In unison the friends continued walking.

At her lobby they stopped. "If you need anything, you let me know. A shoulder. A hit man. A private investigator to find your father. Anything."

"How about a plane to take me to the Markham Islands?" she said jokingly.

"Anything."

"Thanks for the escort, Nikolas. Have a good night."

Moments later she walked out of the stairwell on her floor and found Patrick Drake lounging by her door. He straightened up when he saw her.

"Where were you?" His deep voice carried down the hall.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 10**

"Where were you?" His deep voice carried down the hall. He stood up from where he was leaning against the wall next to Robin's front door and took his hands out of the pockets of his jeans.

"What are you doing here?" Heart pounding Robin walked over and looked at him warily as she pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

"I tried to call there was no answer so I thought I'd take a chance and see if you were here." He reached out and tried to stroke her hair but she ducked through the door too quickly.

"You left the hospital without talking to me about Nancy Dixon." Robin didn't tell him that she left her cell phone home so that she couldn't be tracked. She was sure he would think she was certifiable. Having to think of things like that had never touched his life before; they hadn't even touched hers in a long time. Just as her heart hadn't been touched in a long time, she acknowledged.

"I had some errands to run, things I was going to do since it was supposed to be my day off." Patrick's smile was obviously forced.

Robin put her leather jacket over a dining room chair and turned to see him standing with one hand on his hip and the other ruffling through his hair nervously. She thought about whether she should be mad at him, but realized she didn't really have a leg to stand on, just a lot of inconvenient emotion. "Have you had dinner?" she asked softly.

"No, but I'm not really hungry." He had both hands on his hips now as he tried to look anywhere but at Robin.

"I have some chicken soup from Kelly's and crusty bread." She looked at him, hating the distance between, both physical and emotion. When did that happen, she wondered?

"Sounds good." He looked at her now, unsmiling.

Maybe it was there all along, she thought as she walked into the kitchen and she had been fooling herself, again. She wondered if he had shown up tonight to put an end to their affair. He was acting like it.

She had the soup on the stove heating up and was putting the bread into the oven before he finally walked into the kitchen and offered to help. She directed him to set the kitchen table and pour drinks. A short time later they were sitting in the breakfast nook with the door to Robin's small balcony open so they could enjoy the chill spring breeze.

For the first time since they met there was no banter, no heated conversations, no cheesy come-ons, not even talk about work. Robin didn't know if Patrick thought the silence was unnatural or a sign of how comfortable they had gotten with each other. All she knew was that she was uncomfortable and didn't know what to say. Seeing him so soon on the heels of her confession to Nikolas had thrown her and she felt like she was being sucked into quicksand. Her suspicion that he was there to end things was solidifying into a certainty, although the fact that he was eating with her didn't seem to make sense unless he was procrastinating. She considered that maybe she should initiate the conversation and get it over with?

She was pulled from her thoughts by the ring of the telephone. She jumped up and grabbed it from the wall. "Hello?" All she heard was static and the garbled sound of a man's voice in the distance. "Hello? Can you hear me?" The phone clicked off. She looked at the caller id, which once again read "unavailable".

"Is everything okay?" Patrick asked behind her.

Instead of answering, Robin dialed the operator. "I just got a call on this number from unavailable, it was a bad connection and I couldn't hear who it was to call them back." All she got in return for her request was a lesson on telephone company bureaucracy. Frustrated she hung up.

"What's going on?" Patrick put his hands on her shoulders after she hung up.

Unable to help herself, she leaned into his touch. "Probably nothing." She put her fingers to her lips and thought for a moment. Maybe she was, as she told Nikolas, engaging in wishful thinking? Or maybe she was trying to distract herself from the situation with Patrick? Or maybe she should just listen to her gut, which was telling her the calls had something to do with her father? Her mother's over-casual question from two weeks ago had planted a seed that hadn't gone away. "I need to make a call."

Instead of picking up the cordless phone, Robin walked into her office and used her wired desk phone to make a call to a number that she had memorized a long time ago. She contemplated running out to the payphone, but while she needed the walk earlier to clear her head, it felt a bit too melodramatic now that Patrick was there.

"Uncle Sean? I need your help."

>>>>>>

"Robin, what's going on?" Patrick got up from the couch. "I already cleaned up," he said when she started to head into the kitchen.

"Thanks." She sat down on the couch and curled up into herself. Patrick sat down, almost a full cushion away and facing her.

"What's going on? Who was on the phone?"

"That's the second call with a bad connection I've gotten today. It sounds weird, but I just have this feeling I used to get when I was a kid and my parents were in trouble." She tilted her head. "I'm probably imagining things."

"Did you just try to call your mom or dad?"

"I called my godfather to ask him to get a trace on the calls. Like I told Nikolas it's probably just a faulty auto-dialer and I'm being paranoid."

"When did you tell Nikolas?"

"I ran into him tonight."

"Oh." Patrick put his hand along the back of the couch, his hand almost touching her. "You never struck me as the paranoid type. If you think there's something going on, there probably is."

Robin looked at his hand and then back at him. "What brings you here, Patrick?"

He moved his hand until it was touching her bare arm. "I missed you." The words were said in a husky whisper. The one that was filled with longing and that made her feel like she was the only one he used it with, though she was certain that couldn't be true. She melted into him as he surged forward, cupped her face and captured her lips with his in a sensuous kiss.

>>>>>>>

"Do you have protection here?"

They were still on the couch. Patrick was positioned between her legs, both of their shirts were lying in a heap on the floor and their bare skin caressed with every slight shift.

"In the bedroom," she whispered in between kisses and continued to run her fingers through the back of his hair.

"I want you so much," he moaned into her neck and pressed himself more tightly against her. "All the time." He nibbled on under her chin and unclasped her bra behind her back and slid his hands around her torso to cup her aching breasts. "Never enough. I can never get enough." He surged into her again.

"Patrick." Her moan filled the stillness of the room. She arched into him.

"We need to go to the bedroom. Can we go to the bedroom?" Patrick's questions were as urgent as the hands seeking and giving pleasure on her body.

"Yes."

Patrick stood up and held his hand out. Before she could clasp it he changed his mind and lifted her up and slid his tongue over her as he carried her to the bedroom. In the bedroom he lay her down on the antique metal bed and stood looking down at the wanton picture she knew she made with her pants on and her swollen nubs taunting him. He unbuttoned his jeans, hissing as the pressure on his arousal was released, and he slid them down his legs, taking his underwear and socks off at the same time. Then he positioned himself again on top of her and began tasting of everything she offered as he removed her remaining clothes.

"In the drawer," she cried out as he teased feather-light fingertips over. Moments later he slid himself inside her, inch by inch, filling her and surrounding himself in her tight heat.

"Open your eyes," he commanded as he held himself still. Their gazes locked and he began to move. In, out, up, down, ever so slowly. In contrast, her movements under him were hungry as she tried to grasp at him, but he never increased his pace and with his gaze tender and heated he brought her to the brink and then lost himself in the midst of her bone-shaking release.

He only left her long enough to discard the used protection and moments later was surging inside her again. This time, his moves were hard and lustful and she shattered around him again and again. And again.

"Never enough," he whispered into her ear later as he held her to him and drifted off to sleep.

She didn't bother wiping the tears that slid from her eyes. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 11**

She broke the rules and like always she was going to pay for it.

This was her first thought upon waking in the eerie half-light of dawn and finding the other side of her bed cold and empty. Her body was still sated, but her heart was sore.

Last night had been amazing. But this morning, with him gone, she was only more certain that last night was a goodbye, or, at the least, the beginning of the end. His way of connecting to her one last time before he made the inevitable break that they both had agreed would come. Was he tired of her? No, he had said he couldn't get enough of her, at least physically. He wouldn't have lied. Was he afraid of his own feelings or desires? Was there more to what he felt for her than simple caring between friends and colleagues? Or had he simply sussed out her feelings and decided to put distance between them in hopes they'd go away?

She clutched her quilt more tightly around herself. Was she over thinking again? A short, sharp bark of what sounded like laughter echoed through the room. Out loud she told herself, "If you have to ask that question Robin, then yes you're over thinking."

She closed her eyes and tried to drift back to sleep. She wasn't due at the hospital for another two hours. The hospital, her eyes popped open again. Sighing heavily she pushed the blankets back and sat up. She knew there was no way sleep would come. Today was the day Patrick would operate on Nancy Dixon. Robin knew the feeling of foreboding that was settled in her gut all too well. How she hoped she was wrong. Could Patrick handle losing this patient like Noah had lost Patrick's mother?

* * *

"She's gone, Patrick. Call it," Robin said firmly over the beep of the machines. They had been working for interminable minutes to revive Nancy Dixon, but she, they all, knew it was no use. She was gone.

Patrick's hands dropped and Epiphany took the used instruments from his hands as he looked at Robin, their dark eyes locked. Robin nodded slightly and Patrick's eyes went to the clock and he did what the job called for next. He stepped back as the nurses covered the patient, he watched, but Robin could tell that it wasn't the woman before him that he saw.

Robin made her way over to him and silently guided him out of the O.R. She took off her gloves and had moved in to help Patrick with his when the outer door to the scrub room opened. She felt Patrick flinch and turned around and saw Noah standing just inside the doorway.

"I'll leave you two alone," Robin murmured and stepped back.

"No, you should stay for this." Patrick held onto Robin's wrist. "Come to tell me how reckless I was, how I deserved to lose this patient? How you could have done better?"

"No, Patrick, I…"

"You know what, Dad, save it. I have a family to tell they lost their wife and mother. That's what a doctor is supposed to do!" He tossed his gloves and gown into the bin and stormed out.

Robin rubbed her nose and looked at Noah sympathetically.

"I didn't come here to do what he said." He looked up at Robin, his eyes watery and pained. "I came to…he'll never accept it. Not now."

"Just keep trying, Noah." Robin touched his arm before walking out.

* * *

Patrick sat on the bench in front of the lockers, Robin stood a few feet away looking down at him. Patrick's eyes were red and it was clear that he had hastily tried to hide that he had been crying when Robin had walked in, but tell-tale tear tracks streaked his cheeks.

She had watched this man tell the Dixon family that Nancy was gone. She had watched him kneel down and offer his apologies and sympathies to the little son. She had felt the pain emanating from him and knew that she was hearing the words that Patrick had wanted to hear when his own mother died. She had seen Noah watching and listening and seen the older man almost physically stagger at the sight before them. Patrick's voice had been rough with swallowed tears through his discourse and when he stood up and looked at his father his eyes held a plea. Noah had clearly been frozen with emotion, but Patrick had obviously taken it as another rejection and stalked off.

"Patrick, are you all right?" Robin was about to put her hand on his shoulder when the door opened behind her.

"Dr. Scorpio, there's an emergency call for you on line two." Robin turned to find a nurse sticking her head inside the doorway to announce.

"Thank you." Robin just looked at Patrick who stood up at the interruption and opened his locker and began changing. Frowning, Robin went to pick up the call.

"This is Dr. Scorpio. Oh, hi Uncle Sean." Robin listened for a moment. "What else did you find out?" Another pause. "I'll let you know what I decide, thanks, Uncle Sean." She turned around to find Patrick watching her, his button-down shirt hanging open on his muscled frame.

"What did he say? Were those calls from your father?" he asked.

"Yeah, at least they were from the Markham Islands," she said quietly, her fingers curled in front of her lips. She watched as he continued to dress.

"It's good that he's calling," Patrick said, watching her intently.

Robin shrugged, but didn't share with him the rest of the information she'd been given.

"Do you want to talk about…" Patrick began.

Robin turned away without answering, struggling with what to do, what to say.

"I'm going to go home. Have a good night." Patrick ducked his head, looked at her one more time, his eyes sad, and then walked out.

Robin's jaw dropped as she watched him go out. She put her hands on her hips and turned around, blinked hard and shook her head.

It had dawned on her as she watched Patrick prepare for surgery today that last night was not so much about her as it was about his mother's death. She wondered when he first looked into Nancy Dixon's case and how much everything in recent days arose from that and whether any of it have to do with how he felt about her. Did he feel anything at all? She rubbed her forehead and sighed. She was overthinking again. Overthinking instead of communicating. Just then, she heard the door open behind her and eagerly turned around, thinking it was Patrick returning.

Instead it was Lulu Spencer with a determined tilt to her chin and a challenge in her eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

Mucho writing credit to my secret gatekeeper for a BIG assist in this part. Kisses.

**Part 12**

Robin looked at her companion for the flight to the Markham Islands. She couldn't help but smile at the irony as she thought back to the stories of Robert and Luke's adventures; now it was their daughters trying to find their renegade fathers and doing it on the plane belonging to the family of their sworn enemy the Cassadines.

For the first time in ages she felt like Robin Anna Soltini Scorpio, daughter of super-spies. She honestly would rather trek through a jungle and face the crooked cops and bounty hunters that Sean Donely said held their fathers than deal with the mess she had made with Patrick Drake. While it had seemed brave at the time to embark on the casual affair with him, from this vantage point it seemed like nothing but cowardice. Cowardice not to admit to herself that she had strong feelings for him, cowardice to not hold out for what she wanted or walk away with her pride intact and certainly cowardice not to tell him how she felt now.

Well, she vowed, she would tell him at the next opportunity and deal with whatever the outcome was. It was time to show everyone and herself what she was made of in all areas of her life. 

Shaking her head, she refocused her attention on the matter at hand. They had a rough idea for a plan, but they were honestly going to pretty much wing it. She suspected despite the tales her father, Luke, Sean and Frisco used to tell that this was how their fathers generally handled things anyway.

The plane began its descent and Lulu and Robin buckled in. They looked at each other and smiled. "You do know what you're doing with that gun don't you?" Robin asked.

"Do you?" Lulu challenged.

"I'm a Scorpio." Robin shrugged.

"And I'm a Spencer." Lulu raised her chin imperiously.

Both spoke at once. "Of course we do." They grinned at each other.

>>>>>>>

Robin and Lulu were standing on the tarmac insisting to Nikolas' overzealous staff that they could carry their own luggage when a sharp clearing of a throat behind them interrupted. Robin turned around and her jaw dropped for the second time in as many days. Standing in front of her looking both pleased and outraged was one Anna Devane Scorpio Lavery Scorpio Hayward.

"Mom! What are you doing here?"

"I imagine the same thing as you, luv, looking for your idiot of a father. And Luke of course. "She turned her attention to Lulu. "You must be Lulu. You are the spitting image of your mother, thank goodness."

"That's me." Lulu laughed and shook Anna's outstretched hand. 

"Have you talked to Uncle Sean?" Robin interjected. 

Anna nodded and pointedly told the Cassadine staff they had things under control. The staff listened and Robin and Lulu flipped their bags into their back and followed Anna to a waiting Jeep on the other side of the tarmac. They dumped their bags in and Anna pulled a map from her shoulder bag and spread it out over the hood of the vehicle. 

"Sean has gotten reports that they are being held somewhere in this area." With her finger Robin drew an imaginary perimeter. 

"My sources have confirmed that," Anna said, smiling proudly at her daughter.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Robin and Lulu said at the same time.

"That's my girl. I have a safe house near there where we can get our plan together. We don't want any nasty surprises. Do remember what I taught you?"

"Be fast, be flexible and be aware." Robin grinned and they all got into the vehicle.

After two hours drive in the stifling sun they reached the small house that Anna had obtained through her connections; which ones Robin didn't want to know. In the house they ate, drank and formulated their strategy.

Once dark came, Anna reached into a trunk and pulled out two guns for the two younger women. Robin and Lulu reached into their bags. "It's already taken care of."

>>>>>>>

Anna used a spyglass from the perimeter and looked in the window of the decrepit plantation house that Sean and her local source had said the aging adventurers were being held. She frowned and pulled it away from her eye and looked at her companions.

"What is it Mom?"

"Well your father and your father," looking at Robin then Lulu, "are in there and so is Holly." Given Holly's role in the virus that almost killed her daughter her pronunciation of the woman's name came out like a curse. "There are two other young men in there."

Robin took the spyglass and took a look for herself. "What the hell?" she whispered and handed it to Lulu.

"It's Dillon and Patrick. What are they doing here?" Lulu asked, her eyes wide with shock.

"Your Patrick?" Anna looked at her daughter, an indescribable expression on her face.

"Patrick Drake and Dillon Quartermaine." Robin ignored her mother's reference to Patrick as "your". "Do you think they were kidnapped and brought here?" She couldn't figure out why though.

"Every bit of intel we've gathered said this is local in nature – your dumb ass fathers chasing after that woman and local law enforcement bounties - and not related to the Cryllium or the virus, although we've all been fooled before. They might take Patrick to get at you, my daughter. And maybe Dillion because he's Luke's stepson, but it's highly unlikely that those behind this have the money, ability or desire to pull that off."

"This makes things more complicated, doesn't it?" Robin sighed and looked again. They were all tied up, but only Dillion and Patrick were gagged she noticed.

"This might be bigger than we think. Without knowing exactly what we're up against this part is going to be risky."

"I should still play distraction, I'm small and non-threatening and while everyone is focusing on me, we can get the advantage," Robin said.

Anna shook her head. "I don't like that idea at all now. Too dangerous."

"Are you saying that because I'm your daughter? Would you say that to someone you work with? I'm perfectly capable, Mother."

"I never said you aren't capable, Robin. But you aren't a trained agent, no matter how good a shot you are."

"What other options do we have? Can your source gather us an army? I think the smaller the group the better anyway."

"We need to watch these people for a while and see what we are up against."

Suddenly Robin realized Lulu wasn't standing there. "Where is she?"

"Dammit! Those bloody Spencers!" They saw Lulu jimmy the servant's door and enter the side entrance.

Anna took her gun from its holster and walked quietly toward the door with Robin following her with her gun also drawn. Robin circled around the back way, while Anna followed Lulu the direct route to the parlor, each party taking out the guards they crossed path with. Minutes later they all stood facing each other from the corridors flanking the closed parlor doors, each giving the pre-arranged signal. Within seconds the two guards were neutralized and Anna was kicking in the locked inner doors.

"Well, well, well, rescued by three beautiful women. Could this day get any better, Robert?" Luke quipped as his daughter ran up to him and began to undo his bindings. Luke went to undo Holly as Lulu untied Dillion.

"Nice gag," Lulu chuckled.

"We had to beg our captors to gag them, but not too hard, they wouldn't shut up, either of them" Robert said, clearly irritated as Anna used unnecessary force on his bindings to make sure they cut into his skin before being released. He massaged his wrists and wisely withheld comment as Anna handed him a spare gun.

Robin sliced through Patrick's bindings and let him undo his own gag. "Here, take this. You're a surgeon; you ought to be able to handle a knife," Robin said before he could say anything. He glared at her and took the knife. Robin sighed inwardly, understanding that if he was kidnapped and dragged halfway around the world just for knowing her he had a right to be pissed off at her.

"We have a half a mile through the jungle before we reach a safe house. Can everyone walk?" Anna asked.

"Actually, that won't be necessary. The cavalry has arrived," Luke pointed through the window.

Anna snorted. "And here I thought that's what we were ladies. See the appreciation we get from these men?"

"Now, now, Anna, once again you underestimate me. I had it all in hand."

"I could tell. Are you sure those aren't more people looking to lynch you and make sure that Robert Scorpio is really dead?"

"Now, I know you want first crack, luv."

"Don't 'luv' me!"

Robin couldn't help but smile at the brisk remarks flying between her parents. It felt like home. Out of the corner of her eye she was Patrick watching avidly and frowning.

Moments later a group of men were bursting into the house. Dillion jumped behind Lulu and Patrick stood in front of Robin. Robin rolled her eyes and pushed him out of the way.


	13. Chapter 13

**Part 13 **

"How did you get here?" Robin asked as they were being driven down the rutted road to the airport in a surplus army truck supplied by the men sent by Sean Donely to contain the situation. This meant, much to Anna's satisfaction, the real saving had been done by Robin who had called Sean, not Robert as he tried to claim.

"I got my mom to lend us the Quatermaine jet. It was so cool!" Dillion said from the seat across from Robin and Patrick where he was explaining to Lulu how Patrick and Dillon ended up where the women found them.

Anna, Robert, Holly and Luke rode in the other truck where the men were trying to convince Anna not to put a bullet in the Englishwoman for endangering her daughter's life. Anna's reminder made both men visibly cringe in a way that spurred Lulu into insisting that the "young people" would ride separately.

"But why?" Robin asked Dillion her brow furrowed in puzzlement. Her mind was still stuttering with the realization that Patrick had come after her.

"Duh!" Lulu rolled her eyes and pulled her gun out of Dillion's amateur hands.

"Why? What the hell were you thinking?" Patrick demanded harshly.

"I think I should be asking you that," Robin said, still completely bewildered, or at least pretending to be because a bubble of hope was growing.

"I'm not the one who almost died from the virus and then decided to traipse off to its source."

"I was not traipsing, I came to rescue my father and Luke. We both did." Robin raised her chin. "_We_ know what we're doing."

"Without a word to anyone. Especially someone – me - who might have talked you out of such a stupid idea. Or have come with you!" Patrick shook his head in frustration.

"When was I supposed to tell you, Dr. Drake? When you were dismissing me in the locker room?" She glared at him.

"You weren't going to tell me at all, Scorpio so don't even pull that. I had to hear it when this one," he pointed at Dillon, "Came looking for you because Lulu had disappeared and we put two and two together."

"I don't even know what we're arguing about here." Robin threw her hands up in frustration. "Or why you're here. You shut up!" she pointed at Lulu who was about to mock them again.

Lulu looked at Dillon and shrugged. Dillon smiled and waggled his eyebrows.

"What the hell else am I supposed to do when my girlfriend decides to play Wonder Woman?" Patrick snarled.

"I have no idea what you're supposed to do when…what? What did you call me?" Robin bit the inside of her lips to stop herself from smiling.

"What?" Patrick looked at her in confusion.

"Since when am I your girlfriend?" Robin demanded.

Both Robin and Patrick ignored Lulu's long, drawn out "duh" even though this time Dillon joined in.

"What do you mean since when? We talked about this other night."

"What night?" Robin looked at him like he was crazy.

"In my hotel room. We admitted we cared for each other," he said like it was the most reasonable and obvious answer.

"And that we would go with the flow!" Robin mimed a passing wave with her hand. "Talk about when things go too heavy. Nowhere in there was the word girlfriend mentioned."

"Then what the hell have the past few days been about?" Patrick sounded exasperated.

"I thought it was about two friends having casual sex," she said in a low voice. "Like we agreed."

"That's what you thought!" Patrick closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead and began mumbling under his breath.

"Frankly, I thought you were going to end our fling and getting…things…in." Robin waved her hand meaningfully.

"You thought I was going to end it." Patrick covered his eyes with his hand. "Why in the world did you think that? Do you think I let just anyone to pretend to be my fiancé and help pick out my new home so I can make sure she likes it?"

Robin blinked at those words, but not knowing quite how to respond to them she ignored them. "The way you were acting the other night was so distant," she again spoke in a loud whisper in hopes that the two teens couldn't hear their conversation over the road noise. "And then you were gone in the morning and you just left the hospital yesterday without talking to me."

"That night I was upset about my argument with my father and." He broke off with a pained expression, the kind that men get when you try to make them talk about their feelings. "You know what I was upset about. And that morning I went to the gym to work out and I didn't want to wake you."

"Before sunrise?" She asked dubiously.

"I couldn't sleep and I needed to go home before work anyway. And at the hospital, you were the one shutting me out. I was annoyed so I left the locker room to cool off and ended up talking with my father. After we were done I went looking for you and overheard Dillon talking to Liz and found out about Nikolas lending you his plane. If I had known you were coming up with this crazy scheme..." Patrick shook his head.

"How did things go with Noah?" Robin asked, trying to process all the other things he'd said.

"It was fine, great. We said things that should have been said a long time ago. Stop changing the subject."

"I still don't get when I became your girlfriend." Robin crossed her arms and dropped her chin to her chest as she wondered how she could have gotten things so wrong. "Or you became my boyfriend," she mumbled.

"Well, do you think I qualify now that I came halfway around the world to make sure you were all right?" He leaned over and spoke close to her ear.

"Maybe." Robin tilted her head and looked at him. "Just what did you two plan to do once you got here? Besides get captured?"

"We were a little rough on that," Patrick admitted with a sheepish grin.

Lulu let out another "duh." Robin snorted. "Have you ever shot a gun? Been camping? You've never struck me as the survival skills kind of guy." Robin chuckled.

"You either," Lulu said to Dillon.

"I knew you'd protect me," he joked, and then his expression turned serious. "The virus started here. Dillon said your fathers were in trouble. There was no way in hell I was sitting at home waiting for you to come back." He put a finger on her chin and made her look at him. "Or not," he whispered.

"Thank you for coming after me. But I'm still not your girlfriend."

"Why?" Patrick couldn't quite bite back a smirk.

"You didn't ask." Robin crossed her arms.

Patrick rolled his eyes and put his arm around her shoulders and rested his head on top of hers.


	14. Chapter 14

**Part 14 – LAST PART! THANKS FOR READING!**

"You are not staying in a room alone with him!" Robert shouted at his daughter in the middle of the hotel lobby, uncaring as to who heard him.

"You don't get to tell me what to do." Robin put her hands on her hips and glared at him. The hours of travel through and from the Markham Islands to New Zealand had taken its toll on her physical appearance, as well as her temper, but she didn't give a damn and stood facing off with her father regardless of the fact that her shirt was torn, her face dirty and her hair shooting out every which way from the haphazard pony tail she had tied it into hours ago.

"Did you come all this way to once again tell me what a terrible father I am?"

"I meant that I'm a twenty-eight year woman and a doctor." Robin just resisted stomping her foot. "So cut out the…"

"All right, enough." Anna, ever a brave woman, stepped between the two fuming Scorpios. "Robin gets to decide not you. Go. I'll take care of your father; I've been looking forward to that."

"And you saved me so you could kick my…." Robert was on the ground before he could finish the sentence.

"Your mother just…" Patrick pointed in shock and instinctively moved forward to provide a doctor's care, but Robin grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the elevator of the four-star hotel Anna had chosen and made Robert pay for. "It's foreplay Patrick and you don't want to get in the middle."

"Foreplay? That's foreplay? Glad I didn't know that before I became your boyfriend." Patrick leaned against the elevator wall, crossed his arms and smirked at her.

"You are not my boyfriend." Robin couldn't quite bite back her smile as she feigned intense interest in the floor indicator above the elevator doors.

"Okay, then I get the shower first."

>>>>>>

Robin let out a wolf whistle when Patrick walked out of the shower clad only in a low slung towel.

"You didn't join me." Patrick put his hands on his hips and pouted.

"You didn't _ask me_," Robin said pointedly.

"You're right." Patrick's dimple peeped out and he stalked over to where Robin was sitting on the couch. "Your turn to shower." He leaned down and rubbed a smudge on her cheek with his thumb. Robin bat his hand away and stood up, forcing him backwards.

"Ooops!" he put his hands to his face dramatically as his towel dropped to the floor.

Robin bit her lip and took a nice look before flouncing away into the bathroom for her own shower. The click of the bathroom door lock was audible.

>>>>>>

"Are you ever going get dressed?" Robin was wrapped in a towel and using the other one to dry her hair. She was leaning against the doorway of the bathroom looking at Patrick who was laying buck naked on the bed reading the room service menu.

"Can't."

"You can't get dressed? Did you forget how?" Robin walked over to the side of the bed and raised an eyebrow at him.

"No clothes." Patrick put his arms behind his head and smirked at her.

"No clothes?" Robin stopped drying her hair. "You didn't pack a change of clothes?"

"Oh, I did. They just kind of got lost when Dillon and I got, er, nabbed."

"So you have no clothes." Robin failed to stifle a snicker.

"Not even a passport."

"Did you think to maybe mention it earlier?"

"Didn't think of it. I was just so relieved to see my globe-trotting _girlfriend_ safe and sound."

"Safe and sound and saving your ass," Robin mumbled and tossed her wet towel at him and picked up the hotel phone. "Anna Devane's room please." She ducked when Patrick threw the towel at her and rolled her eyes when he slid his hand down his stomach to rest daringly close to his groin. The blush in her cheeks, though, belied her pretense at indifference to his naked state of arousal.

"Dad? I was trying to call….oh, hi Mom. You're in the same hotel room and conscious. I guess that's a good sign. Patrick and Dillion don't have their luggage anymore…"

"Or passports."

Robin sighed. "Or passports. They lost track of it all when they got themselves kidnapped trying to save us. Thanks, Mom. Don't hurt Daddy too much."

"It's not nice to laugh at the man who followed you around the world to rescue you," Patrick said after she hung up.

Robin slipped her knees onto the bed and edged towards Patrick. She looked down at him, her cheeks still flushed and a smile on her lips. "You're my hero." She bit her lip and looked him in the eyes. "I do appreciate the sentiment that brought you here and I'm really, really glad that you're okay." She dropped to her side next to him and put her hand over his heart. "You could have gotten hurt."

Patrick covered her hand with his own. He put his other arm around Robin's body and pulled her to him. "I was worried about you. All I could picture was you slumped over in the locker room during the epidemic. I had to come."

Robin closed her eyes and breathed in his clean, masculine scent. It had barely been a day since she last saw him and she had missed him. She sighed when he gathered her more closely against him.

"Does coming to save your father's life mean you've forgiven him?" Patrick asked after a few minutes of silence.

"It means I think he's too feeble to be chasing around the globe for an adrenaline high." She sighed and lifted her head to rest her chin on his chest and look up at Patrick. "I have to forgive him. He's my father and he's only human. How I feel about it all, I'll have to get back to you on." She sighed.

"Glad to hear you're finally taking your own advice, Scorpio." Patrick ran his hand up her bare back. "Now, how about a kiss for my efforts?"

"Just a kiss?" Robin ran a teasing finger down the center of his chest and down to his waist.

"Weeelllll." With a swiftness that made her gasp, Patrick flipped them over and she was on her back with him looming over her. "You are wearing too much." He tugged at the knot of her towel. He bared her chest to his view and licked his lips, looked into her eyes and then leaned down to take one nipple between his teeth. When Robin was writhing under him he switched his mouth to the other while his hands held her hips still.

"Condoms. Please tell me you are as big a pig as I think you are and you packed condoms," she moaned and held onto his shoulders. When he froze above she dropped her head down and opened her eyes. "I'm sorr…"

"I did." Patrick moved off her and dropped down onto the bed next to her. He kept a hand on her hip. "I did pack condoms. They're in my overnight bag."

"Which you lost." Robin blew a breath out. "Damn."

"You so want me," Patrick taunted.

"Oh my god." Robin rolled her eyes and laughed. "You are such an ass!"

"Only one thing to do then."

"Yeah?" Robin looked down at his waist and then back up into his face. She was smirking. "What's that?"

Patrick reached over and grabbed the house phone. "This is room 1013, we need a large box of condoms with spermicidal jelly sent up. Make sure they're ribbed for her pleasure."

Robin's jaw dropped open and her face flushed in mortification.

"And make sure that the order is placed on the bill. Very prominently so Mr. Scorpio is aware of the charge."

Long after Patrick hung up Robin lay staring up at him in complete shock.

"They said it would be about fifteen minutes, which in hotel time means about an hour. How crazy do you think we can drive each other in that time?"

"I can't believe you just did that!" Robin sputtered.

"Oh, get over it, Dr. Scorpio." Patrick put his hand on her breast and gave her his best leer. When she was still clearly embarrassed he pulled the towel back around her body and stroked her cheek. "I'll pay cash, actually you'll pay cash since my wallet is also missing. Man, you owe me big for this Scorpio. I'm going to have to go to the DMV." He grimaced.

"I'll pay cash." Robin began to laugh. "That was such a Patrick Drake thing to do though."

"Yeah? Is that a good thing?" He licked his lips and smiled down at her.

"Yeah. It's a good thing." Robin's face got serious. "You said something once to me and I want to set the record straight. I like you just the way you are Patrick, as much as you infuriate me, I did make it sound like you were a pet project and that wasn't my intention."

"But in a way I was your pet project, Robin." He put his fingers over her lips when she tried to object. "I…" he stopped and sighed and rested his forehead against hers. "Without you I would never have made peace with my father. He would have probably, no definitely died before we ever could." Patrick swallowed past a lump in his throat. His eyes filled with tears. "I never would have known what it was like to open my heart again."

He stroked some wet hairs that stuck to her cheek back. Her own eyes were filled as she looked at him.

"I said I wanted to just have sex with you and then move on. Maybe I even really believed it, but the moment I touched you deep down inside I knew I could never stop. I was just…everything I ever accused you of being. We're quite a pair, Scorpio. I really think that you should be my girlfriend and save everyone else the trouble of dealing with us. I promise to infuriate you as much as possible."

"That still wasn't a question." Robin bit her lip and a tear ran down her cheek.

Patrick wiped the tear and snorted. "You're just as infuriating as I am, by the way. So, Dr. Scorpio, will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend." Patrick grinned and shook his head.

"Dr. Hottie, I would be honored." She put her arms around his neck.

Then there was a knock at the door.

**THE END**

_A/N: Thanks everyone for sticking in there and for the awesome feedback. This has been my favorite (to date) scrubs fic to write. Thanks to my "secret" guardian! I couldn't have done this without you!_  



End file.
